Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Meet the Egyptians Doing NASA's Astronaut Candidate Training

Intrepid traveller Omar Samra just joined NASA-funded PoSSUM Astronaut Candidate Programme, along with Egyptian nationals Ahmed Farid and Abdelraouf El Waqad.

Staff Writer

Meet the Egyptians Doing NASA's Astronaut Candidate Training

Travel icon and record-breaker Omar Samra is one of the Egyptians currently training for NASA-funded project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, located in Florida, USA.

“On my quest to become the first afro in space, I'm happy to announce that I've been accepted into Project PoSSUM,” he announced on his Instagram page. “The space-science programme trains and prepares qualified individuals to study the effects of climate change from space through observing rare cloud formations in the upper atmosphere. So this week I'll be studying and training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University with a small group of NASA folk and science PhDs,” he explains.

Egyptian future astronauts Omar Samra, Ahmed Farid, and Abdelraouf El Waqad. 

The traveller and entrepreneur, who is also planning a national space competition across 100 schools across 28 governorates, was chosen amongst other Egyptian nationals to train at the prestigious university: Engineer Ahmed Farid of the European Space Agency, and Abdelraouf El Waqad, student at Aerospace Engineering at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach. “It's a privilege to be chosen to go through the PoSSUM Program with the world's top scientists, engineers, educators, communicators, pilots, and more,” Abdelraouf El Waqad says.

Omar Samra on the third training day. 

Follow the PoSSUM Astronaut Candidate Training Program for more updates.